Synopsis:Jessica is your typical self-absorbed, shallow, teenage cheerleader. With little regard for her peers, her biggest concern is being voted prom queen. All that changes, though, when she steals a pair of enchanted earrings. Through a series of outrageous circumstances, one earring ends up in the possession of a 30-year-old moronic male criminal named Clive. When Clive and Jessica each put on one of the earrings, their bodies are magically switched.

Jessica wakes up to discover herself inhabiting the body of the hairy and disgusting Clive. In a panic, she turns to her friend April for help. Together the girls must hide “Clive” from Jessica’s parents, discover how her body was switched, and set everything right again. Along the way Jessica must make amends with her old enemies, set things right with her boyfriend, and deal with the problems associated with being a male.

The Movie:I missed “The Hot Chick” when it first hit theaters. I set my expectations for it rather low, but was pleasantly surprised by it on my DVD viewing. Yes, it’s low humor, but it’s still fun. It’s pretty much your standard “Freaky Friday” concept with a twist. Rather than family members switching places, it’s two strangers of opposite sex and age. (Come to think of it, it’s pretty creepy to think of a criminal male possessing a female teen’s body, but I guess that’s overlooked.)

Rob Schneider is pretty good as Clive/Jessica. I generally don’t like his movies, but he’s much more tolerable in this role. He’s significantly less smarmy than he is in other movies. While I can’t say how accurate his portrayal of a teenage girl is, I can say he sure acts gay as Jessica. That does lead to some humorous moments, though, in a bar, with Jessica’s boyfriend, and in other scenes.

The girls in the movie are good, too. I liked Rachel McAdams a lot as Jessica. She’s cute and does a good job of playing both the cheerleader and the tough Clive. She’s pretty good at comedy and I hope to see her in other roles. Anna Faris is pretty good as April. However, her role takes a bizarre twist when she starts falling in love with her best friend who is now a balding middle-aged man. Jessica’s half-Asian, half-African American friend also provides some really hilarious moments as her Korean mother constantly embarrasses her in front of her friends.

The film is packed with cameos, too. While most are actors you recognize and don’t know the name of, the most notable is Adam Sandler (who also produces this film). He plays a bongo playing stoner who works in a mall store. It’s a rather subdued role for him, but a unique one.

The movie has its high and low moments, but it pretty thoroughly explores the main aspects of a girl suddenly finding herself as a guy. Of course there are urinating jokes, sexual jokes, a bar fight, flirting jokes, a pillow fight that turns ugly, etc. However, the funniest moments seem to be the quick sight gags that come and go quickly. They include Jessica’s little brother admiring himself wearing her clothes, Ling Ling’s Korean mother telling her she forgot her “bling bling”, the principal’s tuba obsession, and other sight gags. They are all aside from the plot, but they fill out the movie to make it more entertaining.

The film starts out strong then loses a bit of steam by the end. Sub-plots are not resolved and everything is wrapped up a lot neater than you might expect. Overall, though, the film is a good renter and good for some mindless amusement.

The Extras:This DVD has a pretty good number of extras. They help round out the movie experience:

Deleted Scenes – I was really surprised at the number of deleted scenes. It seems like there is 15 minutes worth of material here. Many of the deleted scenes revolve around sub-plots that were removed. For example, there’s a whole series of scenes where we learn Jessica’s mother is a hypochondriac. We see her go outside in an environmental suit, open the mail with a gas mask, and other odd things. Another series shows a lot more of Clive in Jessica’s body. We see her rob a department store, beat up a man in an alley, hang around a women’s locker room, and other things. Rachel McAdams is pretty funny in the scenes and it’s a shame they were cut. There’s also a whole series of scenes with a Russian janitor from the school played by one of the people from Mad TV. I don’t know why these were cut, either, because they were pretty amusing. Other deleted scenes are just random pieces here and there that are not anything particularly special.

Alternate Ending – The movie itself ended rather weakly, yet this alternate ending shows that it could have been even worse. Clive is shown washing windshields on the street and almost getting run over. We also see Jessica’s family having fun bowling. Jessica does give one funny tip of the hat to “The Waterboy” when she says, “You can do eet!”

“The Hot Chick Yearbook” Behind-The-Scenes Featurette – This is a batch of behind the scenes videos on different topics. They cover the stunts of the movie, Rachel McAdams learning to act like a man, Rob Schneider learning to act like a teen girl, Jessica’s hot chick friends, the dance moves, and the guest cameos. There’s a ton of footage from rehearsals, outtakes, and more. The features are quite good and worth checking out if you enjoyed the movie.

Zed Music Video “Starlight” – The music video for this is quite clever. Rather than simply featuring clips from the movie, you have Rob Schneider and the witch girl from the original cast featured in the video. She puts a potion in a bottle of water and as people take drinks from it, they turn into Rob Schneider as the janitor. Schneider switches bodies with the lead singer of the band for a good portion of the song. It’s a nice way to tie the movie and the music together.

The Bottom Line:“The Hot Chick” should make a pretty good renter if you’re looking for a movie that’s plain dumb fun.